Flying

Last july and august, nascar internet discussion boards swirled and smoked like a winning car churning victory donuts after a race. Jack Roush had just wrecked his jet (N6JR)-his second serious crash flying "little" airplanes. The auto-racing legend and founder of Roush Fenway Racing walked away from this one-staggered, actually-bloodied, blinded in one eye and with several cracked bones.

For terrorists and other criminals, there must be few targets more inviting than high-net-worth individuals who fly privately. Which countries are safe? "None," according to Edward L. Lee II, author of Staying Safe Abroad: Traveling, Working and Living in a Post-9/11 World. Lee knows what he's talking about, having spent 30 years with the U.S.

Gulfstream acquired the super-midsize G200 when it bought Galaxy Aerospace in 2001. The aircraft offered a unique value because its ovoid fuselage actually allows for more headroom than a full-size Gulfstream GIV (with a tube that is only two inches narrower), seating for eight to 10 passengers, true transcontinental range, a 45,000-foot ceiling and a top speed of Mach 0.85.

If you're new to the world of fractional shares, you may well be confused about how these deals work and about the terminology you're hearing. Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions.
How did the fractional-share concept get started?

When Bill Lear created the Learjet in the early 1960s, he envisioned a small, fast and ­simple airplane, a concept the marketplace embraced. His 20-series and the slightly elongated 30-series ­aircraft that followed sold briskly for more than 20 years, until long after he had left the company.

Sociologists talk about how societies throughout history have had varying tolerance for ­disparities of wealth. That is, the degree to which the ­economic gap can expand before the unwashed masses rise up and take down the well-scrubbed wealthy few. Think Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution.

From the dictionary: "intangible:...that which cannot be easily defined, formulated or grasped." When it comes to assessing much of the value in flying privately, that term is dead on. True, there are software programs like Travel$ense from the National Business Aviation Association that can help make a strong financial case for business aviation.

PLANETARIUM CEILINGS, gold-plated bidets and Louis XIV interiors may have fallen out of fashion for new Boeing Business Jets in this economy, but you can sum up the latest version of this private uber barge in one word: more.

ALL TRANSPORTATION METHODS INVOLVE some risk, but corporate/executive business jets enjoy a stellar safety record, with only one fatal accident since 2007. That's according to statistics on U.S.-registered aircraft from Robert E. Breiling Associates, an aviation-safety research firm.

One of the big advantages bizav has over airline travel is your ability to get more done by hitting multiple stops in a single day. Now, thanks to in-flight Internet services such as Aircell's GoGo Biz, Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband and ViaSat's Yonder Broadband, you can do more on the way, too.

Quote/Unquote

“[New billionaires in fast-growing countries] have to buy longer-range airplanes. If you’re flying from Mongolia to Nigeria, it’s either a three-day journey flying commercial or a nine-hour flight on your jet.”